Blue OWL Capital
Through the investors’ lenses
Each of these investors has said in public what they look at before buying. Click a name to see how this company measures up — a tick where it passes one of their tests, a cross where it does not.
Warren Buffett 1/4
| Measure | OWL | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner earnings | $44.53m | positive | ✓ |
| Return on equity | 3.6% | median 11.7% | ✗ |
| Debt to equity | 1.51x | median 0.79x | ✗ |
| Operating margin | 12.1% | median 15.0% | ✗ |
Passes 1 of 4. To be clear: Warren Buffett has never said anything about Blue OWL Capital. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Terry Smith 0/3
| Measure | OWL | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Return on capital employed | 6.3% | median 10.1% | ✗ |
| Cash conversion | — | median 1.78x | — |
| Operating margin | 12.1% | median 15.0% | ✗ |
| Debt to equity | 1.51x | median 0.79x | ✗ |
Passes 0 of 3. To be clear: Terry Smith has never said anything about Blue OWL Capital. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Charlie Munger 0/3
| Measure | OWL | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Return on capital employed | 6.3% | median 10.1% | ✗ |
| Return on equity | 3.6% | median 11.7% | ✗ |
| Operating margin | 12.1% | median 15.0% | ✗ |
Passes 0 of 3. To be clear: Charlie Munger has never said anything about Blue OWL Capital. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Chuck Akre 0/2
| Measure | OWL | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Return on equity | 3.6% | median 11.7% | ✗ |
| Debt to equity | 1.51x | median 0.79x | ✗ |
| Cash conversion | — | median 1.78x | — |
Passes 0 of 2. To be clear: Chuck Akre has never said anything about Blue OWL Capital. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Philip Fisher 1/4
| Measure | OWL | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operating margin | 12.1% | median 15.0% | ✗ |
| Net margin | 2.7% | median 10.2% | ✗ |
| Return on capital employed | 6.3% | median 10.1% | ✗ |
| Operating margin, held or improving | 12.1% | 10-yr median 10.8% | ✓ |
Passes 1 of 4. To be clear: Philip Fisher has never said anything about Blue OWL Capital. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Walter Schloss 0/1
| Measure | OWL | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current ratio | — | median 1.25x | — |
| Debt to equity | 1.51x | median 0.79x | ✗ |
Passes 0 of 1. To be clear: Walter Schloss has never said anything about Blue OWL Capital. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Joel Greenblatt 0/1
| Measure | OWL | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Return on capital employed | 6.3% | median 10.1% | ✗ |
Passes 0 of 1. To be clear: Joel Greenblatt has never said anything about Blue OWL Capital. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Peter Lynch 0/2
| Measure | OWL | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debt to equity | 1.51x | median 0.79x | ✗ |
| Net margin | 2.7% | median 10.2% | ✗ |
Passes 0 of 2. To be clear: Peter Lynch has never said anything about Blue OWL Capital. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
| Basis | Payout | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Operating cash flow | 43.5% | whyBefore capital spending. |
| Free cash flow | 45.6% | whyAfter maintaining the business. |
No GAAP earnings figure is shown. This company does not report the inputs for it in its XBRL filings — capital expenditure, in particular, is often folded into a single investing total rather than tagged on its own. The figure is absent from the filings, not zero, and inventing one from a balance-sheet movement would be a guess dressed as a measurement.
Spread between highest and lowest: 2.1 percentage points. Same filings, different denominators.
Coverage rating 27 / 100 — Strained. ? Peer standing 14/50Direction 4/30Stability 9/20
Against its own history: 45.6% this year vs 27.8% median over the prior 4. A gap this size is usually a one-off — acquisition, settlement, cyclical trough — not a dividend that stopped being funded. The rating reads the latest year; the table shows the trend.
Free cash flow payout, last 5 years
| Fiscal year | Payout |
|---|---|
| 2025-12-31 | 45.6% |
| 2024-12-31 | 39.4% |
| 2023-12-31 | 28.1% |
| 2022-12-31 | 27.5% |
| 2021-12-31 | 17.0% |
Coverage has deteriorated three years running, 27.5% to 45.6%. Still covered, but moving the wrong way.
28% of the 25 financial services here pay out more.
The arithmetic
- Operating cash flow — dividends paid $547m ÷ operating cash flow $1,256m
- Free cash flow — dividends paid $547m ÷ (operating cash flow $1,256m − capex $57.7m)
Where the figures came from
- 10-K filed 2026-02-19 · accession 0001823945-26-000009
All public at sec.gov — you should not have to take our word for it.
Caveats on this company
- basis discarded as outside the sane band (distribution far larger than the year's income — usually a special dividend or a return of capital, not a payout ratio): earnings
Computed straight from SEC XBRL. A number that looks wrong to you is more useful to us than agreement — tell us.
What the free cash flow payout ratio measures, and where every company here sits on it.
Also on: rated strained · when it files.
When this changes
Every figure above is recomputed whenever Blue OWL Capital files. The monthly letter carries what filed, what moved, and one finding computed across every company here.